TikTok has recently removed an AI filter that would add weight to the user. Specifically, the filter has been critiqued for reinforcing harmful ideas about weight gain.

TikTok Controversy

The popular social media app has always been subject to controversy. Only last month, the app was banned in the US before being revived by the current president, Donald Trump. However, the app has recently been critiqued by both professionals and users for an alleged AI ”chubby” filter.

The filter uses AI to edit photos to make the subject look like they have gained weight, with participants often acting repulsed by their distorted photos. “If this doesn’t motivate me to go to the gym, I don’t know what will, “wrote some users.

Fat TikTok Filter

In addition, even before the subject was published in media outlets, other TikTok users were quick to highlight why the filter is problematic.

”Now we know who the mean girls are on this app because of the AI ”chubby” filter trend,” wrote greta.cos.

Moreover, other users have critiqued the trend for perpetuating the idea that a woman’s worth is based on her appearance. Meanwhile, others have stated that it is a blatant way of bullying overweight people.

”As a chubby girl, I find the chubby filter the most degrading, damaging trend there is,” wrote user itsjust_meesha.

TikTok Mental Health

According to Dr Emma Beckett, the trending filter was “a huge step backwards” in regard to weight stigma.I n addition, Beckett explained to the BBC that the filter reinforced the idea that people in larger bodies are ”lazy and flawed, and something to be desperately avoided.”

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Published by HOLR Magazine

Image Credit: @tiktok Instagram